RootsChat.Com

Hello people,

my first time posting on this particular page, so I hope this request is acceptable.


I am looking through the Baptism register for Mohill (as seen on the NLI page).

I understand the structure of a typical baptism record but I'd like some advice on the finer clues that can be seen tucked in around the basic structure.

[typical format]

- Day of month
- "Bapt" 
- first name of child
- surname of child
"fils" (or similar)
- first name of father
- first name of mother
- maiden name of mother
"sp" (or similar)
- sponsor1 full name
- sponsor2 full name
- fee (usually 2 shillings & sixpence)

That is usually where the record ends but occasionally there are initials after the sponsor names that I believe correspond to the man conducting the ceremony (JW Evers, Phil O'Reilly or James Smyth for example).

And sometimes a whole line consists only of a statement like "Thos Smyth Settled" which I interpret to mean that the fee or fees for several baptisms have been collected by someone out in a rural chapel and then brought into town to the parish HQ where the fees are received and recorded.

And sometimes there are batches of records that are out of chronological sequence - a slip in time so to speak - which I interpret to be records transcribed from one of the churches outside of Mohill town. I have read that they existed in Clonmorris, Clonturk and Cavan. Also that there was a fellow named Thomas Smyth who would travel around the region and conduct baptism ceremonies wherever needed and would return with the fee for registration in the Mohill register.

So I am trying to interpret these clues in order to see where baptisms for some of my relatives occurred. For example, would the initials after a record [JB POR TS etc] indicate where the parents chose to baptise their newborn? And would a timeslip reveal which of the several regional churches is represented on that page?

My 3G grandparents baptised four children in Mohill and I can see these events recorded in the book. But DNA clustering suggests they lived upcountry near the boundary with Kiltubrid rather than in the town. Can the small details of the Baptism record reveal where they lived?

-DC

I should add that the references to St Hildas in South Shields strikes a nerve as this is the same parish where my known Sanderson ancestors lived in the 1850s-60s.

One of my known Sandersons was a William Sanderson born 1825 who became a mariner and disappeared, presumably at sea or in some foreign land by 1850. Not to say that this is the same fellow as our Captain in Quebec but it shows the possibility of a merchant navy tradition in our 'clan' and a fondness for the name William. His father, born c.1798 in Sunderland, was another William. Not a mariner but a simple farm hand.

-DC

I spent some time focused on the cemetery itself and its 'residents'.

It is a cemetery within Quebec City, now closed and turned into a park.
It was operational from the 1770s to 1860.
It has more than a thousand graves of which only 314 are named.
It served the protestant community in a predominantly catholic society: Presbyterians and Anglicans.

None of the other named graves are Sandersons.
This suggests he had no family there, either by birth or marriage.

There were burials the day before and the day after Capt William
but they are not seaman.

Looking more broadly I could not find evidence of a spate of burials in July 1842
that would suggest a disaster of any sort.

I think this is telling us that William was not local but he was non-catholic.
This is consistent with a man who could have been born in Sunderland where the ship was built
who practised his faith in a Presbyterian community (Wearmouth was such a place). That is the place where my own Sanderson DNA resided in the 1790s.

DC

Regarding missing baptisms:

The Sandersons in my family history are all notoriously absent from baptism records on reason of their religious affiliation. Not that I know much about this but they were of a nonconformist denomination which chose not to pass their records to the mainstream church indexes; either that or they were refused.

I see that the ship was registered at Sunderland. This is where my Sandersons were born so if this is where the maritime Sandersons lived, they were also likely a part of this group.

Thanks Alan,

The 1846 references: do they give any further detail?

There was one, possibly two William Sandersons born c.1825 who worked as a mariner from Newcastle area. I have seen a certificate for him, something like a graduation cert that qualified him for command of a ship though it has been a long time since I saw that document and don't remember it well.

If born in 1795 he would have been 17 in 1812 when the Free Briton appeared in Quebec. Hardly old enough to have been its master. I wonder, how long does it take to rise through the ranks and be given command of a ship? Age 30? 35? Just guessing. But that would take us to 1825-1830. If the ship made regular passage between South Shields and Quebec (again, a guess) then Capt Sanderson could as easily have made his home in Quebec as in South Shields. The mention of the ship on his gravestone implies that he was still serving in his capacity as captain at the time of his death, in which case we'd be looking at a journey in 1842. A man of 47 could easily have a son in his twenties, perhaps a seaman in his own right, a fellow born c.1820. Just putting that out there as a possibility.

-DC